The High Court ruled that a doctor was entitled to 46.4% of HSE payments due to a medical practice in Dooradoyle and awarded him €80,000 for private income lost after he was kept from returning to work. The supplied judgment text does not state the final total monetary award.
The dispute concerned the Walk-In Medical Centre at 13 St. Nessan’s Road, Dooradoyle. The plaintiff sought damages and a declaration of his interest in the practice. After a four-day hearing in March 2015, the defendant conceded in a letter dated 13 April that the two doctors had a 50/50 partnership. The court said it would otherwise have found that a partnership existed, having preferred the plaintiff’s evidence on the disputed issues.
The court accepted that the plaintiff’s agreement to let the defendant’s wife, Dr. Huma Sikander, work one of the practice’s 14 weekly shifts reduced each partner’s share of practice income to 46.4%. It rejected the defendant’s proposed 41% allocation of HSE payments.
The plaintiff had been certified unfit to work from 16 September to 5 December 2014 after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. The parties had agreed €7,943 for income he might have earned by appointing a locum during that period. The court also ruled that he was entitled to his 46.4% share of HSE payments for those weeks, subject to deducting the replacement doctor’s cost, capped at €300 per shift.
The plaintiff was certified fit to return on 5 December, but did not return to the practice until 11 May 2015. The court allowed the full €80,000 in agreed potential private income for the intervening period. It found that the loss was attributable to the defendant’s conduct, including the failure to recognise the plaintiff’s partnership status in dealing with his return.
To protect the plaintiff’s share of HSE money not yet paid to the practice, the court declared that he was a 50% partner and entitled to 46.4% of those sums. It also restrained the defendant from receiving any part of HSE payments without the plaintiff’s knowledge and consent. The supplied text ends after that order and does not give a final calculation of the total damages.